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The 2024 UCI Gravel World Championship’s kick off this week in Belgium, and the third edition of the event promises fast racing with a field full of favorites.
After two years in Italy, this year ‘gravel worlds’ is moving to the one of the most hallowed regions in cycling — Flanders. The races, on October 5 and 6, begin in Halle and finish in Leuven, taking riders through the forests of the Brabantse Wouden National Park.
Unlike other cycling world championship’s, gravel worlds includes both elite and amateur racing. Riders qualify to take part in the event by placing in the top 25 percent of their category at any of the 25 events in the Trek UCI Gravel World Series.
Elite racers can also gain spots if nominated by their national federations through a wild card process.
Last year, Matej Mohorič of Slovenia and Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland won the rainbow jerseys, while the first titles were won in 2022 by Pauline Ferrand Prévot of France and Gianni Vermeersch of Belgium.
Mohorič plans to defend his title during the elite men’s race on October 6, while Ferrand Prevot also recently confirmed her attendance.
Routes
On Saturday, October 5, elite women, all women’s age groups, and men’s 50+ age groups will race a 134-kilometer (83-mile) course that begins in Halle and includes one loop of the finishing circuit in Leuven.
On Sunday, elite men and men’s age groups from 19 – 49 will race 181 kilometers (113 miles), which includes an additional loop of the Leuven circuit. The men’s race includes about 1149 meters (3,770 feet) of climbing.
The starting arch for all races is in Halle. After a local lap and a new stretch through Halle, it’s off to Hallerbos, the start of a long stretch straight through the Forests of Brabant. The new Belgian national park, founded in October 2023 links the Hallerbos, Sonian Forest, Dyle Valley and Meerdaal forest.
The first 13k of the course is a mixed-surface loop from Halle that sees little change in elevation. The steepest climb on the course — 6.5 percent — arrives at kilometer 20. After that, riders will travel northeast through Flandrian forest until they hit the finishing circuit outside of the Leuven city limits at kilometer 80.
2024 UCI Gravel World Championship’s Course on Trailforks.com
Depending on the category, riders will complete one or two laps in Leuven at the end of the race. The loop going from Leuven into the Meerdaal forest to Oud-Heverlee is very similar to the loop that formed the core of last year’s European and Belgian Gravel Championships.
Elite women will tackle 135 kilometers with one local loop and two stretches through Leuven city center on Saturday and are scheduled to finish around 3:30 p.m.. The women in all other categories and the men in the over-50 age categories will also start in Halle shortly after noon on Saturday.
On Sunday, elite men will ride 182 kilometers, making the local loop between Leuven and Oud-Heverlee twice. The winner will be expected around 4: 30 p.m. The men in the other categories start immediately after the elite men.
The 181 kilometer course is about 60 percent unpaved and 40 percent paved roads.
Long list of favorites
Since it debuted in 2022, the UCI Gravel World Championships has attracted a long list of notable riders, many from the WorldTour. 2024 is no different, with a particularly stacked women’s field ready to vie for the rainbow jersey.
Two notable names have just been added to the start list for the elite races — Mathieu van der Poel has confirmed his attendance, as has Pauline Ferrand Prévot from France. The 15-time world champion in five different cycling disciplines will race gravel worlds before shifting her focus fulltime to the road.
Although defending world champion and 2024 Tour de France winner Kasia Niewiadoma has confirmed that she will not race, there are a dozen other women who could be this year’s gravel world champion.
Team Netherlands is bringing a particularly strong squad to gravel worlds this year, with Marianne Vos, Fem van Empel, Lucinda Brand, Femke Markus, and Lorena Wiebes each strong contenders.
XCO world champion Puck Pieterse is also one to watch, as the 22-year-old phenom would love to add another set of rainbow stripes to her closet. Demi Vollering is still a ‘maybe’ for the race.
For newly-crowned road world champion Lotte Kopecky, gravel worlds will be her first gravel race. She’s admittedly low-key about lining up.
“It’d be nice to win another rainbow jersey,” Kopecky told Cyclingnews. “It’s a goal but without ever racing on gravel, it’s hard to say what I can do. I just want to enjoy the race. Of course, I’ll try to be up there to win the race.”
From North America, EF Oatly-Cannondale’s Alison Jackson will represent Canada while US gravel national champ Lauren Stephens will line up at her third gravel world championship.
Other riders to watch include South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Tiffany Cromwell of Australia, Germany’s gravel national champion Carolin Schiff, and Italian Silvia Persico, who was second last year.
In the men’s race, all eyes will be on Mohorič to see if he can become the first two-time gravel world champion. However, the Belgian course is a world apart from the course that the Slovenian won in Italy last year, and now he has fierce competition in Van Der Poel, who was third at gravel worlds last year.
Belgium will put all riders to the test with the depth of its huge squad, which includes European gravel champion Jasper Stuyven, Belgian national gravel champion and former UCI Gravel World Champion Gianni Vermeersch, European road champion Tim Merlier, European cyclocross champion Michael Vanthourenhout, and Belgian national cyclocross champion Eli Iserbyt.
Additional Belgian riders include Tiesj Benoot Gianni Vermeersch (BEL), Florian Vermeersch, Quinten Hermans, Toon Aerts, Frans Claes, Greg Van Avermaet, and Jan Bakelants.
Other riders to watch include once-roadies turned gravel specialists Petr Vakoc (Czech Republic), Nathan Haas (Australia), and Paul Voss of Germany. Brennan Wertz, the US national champion, is also hoping to have a strong showing in Belgium.
How to watch
In Belgium, the elite races will be broadcast live on VRT/Sporza (Flanders) and Proximus (Wallonia). The elite women’s race will be shown from 2:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m local time on Saturday, October 5. The elite men’s race will be shown from 2:15 until 5:00 p.m. Sunday.
In the US and Canada, the elite races will be streamed on Flobikes, with the elite women beginning at 8 a.m. EST on Saturday, October 5 and the men at 8:20 a.m. EST on Sunday, October 6.
Viewers in Europe and the UK on can tune in to Discovery + and Eurosport, while Australians can watch on SBS On Demand, with the women’s race being broadcast at 10:00 p.m. – 12:10 a.m. on Saturday, October 5 and the men’s from 11:20 p.m. – 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 6.
